And Since It Is Seen That The Aborigines Of Northern Africa Consisted,
With The Exception Of The Negro Tribes, Of
The Asiatics of the Caucasian
race or variety, many of whom, like the Phoenicians, have peopled
various cities and provinces
Of Europe, it is therefore not astonishing
we should find all the large towns and cities of North Africa, where the
human being becomes _policed_, refined and civilized sooner than in
remote and thinly-inhabited districts, teeming with a population, which
at once challenges an European type, and a corresponding origin with the
great European family of nations.
North Africa is wonderfully homogeneous in the matter of religion. The
people, indeed, have but one religion. Even the extraneous Judaism is
the same in its Deism - depression of the female - circumcision and many
of the religious customs, festivals and traditions. And this has a
surprising effect in assimilating the opposite character and sharpest
peculiarities of various races of otherwise distinct and independant
origin.
The population of Morocco presents five distant races and classes of
people; Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Jews and Negroes. Turks are not found in
Morocco, and do not come so far west; but sons of Turks by Moorish women
in Kouroglies are included among the Moors, that have emigrated from
Algeria. Maroquine Berbers, include the varieties of the Amayeegh [14]
and the Shelouh, who mostly are located in the mountains, while the
Arabs are settled on the plains.
The Moors are the inhabitants of towns and cities, consisting of a
mixture of nearly all races, a great proportion of them being of the
descendants of the Moors expelled from Spain. All these races have been,
and will still be, farther noticed in the progress of the work. The
proximate amount of this population is six millions. The greater number
of the towns and cities are situate on the coast, excepting the three or
four capitals, or imperial cities. The other towns of the interior
should be considered rather as forts to awe neighbouring tribes, or as
market villages (_souks_), where the people collect together for the
disposal and exchange of their produce. Numerous tribes, located in the
Atlas, escape the notice of the imposts of imperial authority. Their
varieties and amount of population are equally unknown. In the immense
group of Gibel Thelge (snowy mountains), some of the tribes are said to
have their faces shaved, like Christians, and to wear boots. We can
understand why a people inhabiting a cold region of rain and mists and
perpetual snow should wear boots; but as to their shaving like
Christians, this is rather vague. But it is not impossible the Atlas
contains the descendants of some European refugees.
The nature of the soil and climate of Morocco are not unlike those of
Spain and Portugal; and though Morocco does not materially differ from
other parts of Barbary, its greater extent of coast on the Atlantic,
along which the tradewind of the north coast blows nine months out of
twelve, and its loftier ridges of the Atlas, so temper its varied
surface of hill and plain and vast declivities that, together with the
absence of those marshy districts which in hot climates engender fatal
disease, this country may be pronounced, excepting perhaps Tunis, the
most healthy in all Africa.
In the northern provinces, the climate is nearly the same as that of
Spain; in the southern there is less rain and more of the desert heat,
but this is compensated for by the greater fertility in the production
of valuable staple articles of commerce. Nevertheless, Morocco has its
extremes of heat and cold, like all the North African coast.
The most striking object of this portion of the crust of the globe, is
the vast Atlas chain of mountains [15], which traverses Morocco from
north-east to south-west, whose present ascertained culminating point,
Miltsin, is upwards of 15,000 feet above the level of the sea, or equal
to the highest peaks of the Pyrenees. The Maroquine portion of the Atlas
contains its highest peaks, which stretch from the east of Tripoli to
the Atlantic Ocean, at Santa Cruz; and we find no mountains of equal
height, except in the tenth degree of North latitude, or 18,000 miles
south, or 30,000 south, south-east. The Rif coast has a mountainous
chain of some considerable height, but the Atlantic coast offers chiefly
ridges of hills. The coasts of Morocco are not much indented, and
consequently have few ports, and these offer poor protection from the
ocean.
The general surface of Morocco presents a large ridge or lock, with two
immense declivities, one sloping N.W. to the ocean, with various rivers
and streams descending from this enormous back-bone of the Atlas, and
the other fulling towards the Sahara, S.E., feeding the streams and
affluents of Wad Draha, and other rivers, which are lost in the sands of
the Desert. This shape of the country prevents the formation of those
vast _Sebhahas_, or salt lakes, so frequent in Algeria and the south of
Tunis. We are acquainted only with two lakes of fresh or sweet
water - that of Debaia, traversed by Wad Draha, - and that of
Gibel-Akhder, which Leo compares to Lake Bolsena. The height of the
mountains, and the uniformity of their slopes, produce large and
numerous rivers; indeed, the most considerable of all North Africa.
These rivers of the North are shortest, but have the largest volume of
water; those of the South are larger, but are nearly dry the greater
part of the year. None of them are navigable far inland. Some abound
with fish, particularly the Shebbel, or Barbary salmon. It is neither so
rich nor so large as our salmon, and is whitefleshed; it tastes
something like herring, but is of a finer and more delicate flavour.
They are abundant in the market of Mogudor. The Shebbel, converted by
the Spaniards Sabalo, is found in the Guadalquivir.
The products of the soil are nearly the same as in other parts of
Barbary.
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